Start Marathon Training

So I decided yesterday to finally take the leap and register for the San Francisco Marathon on August 3rd. I have been running pretty well over the past few weeks and felt it was time to mark something on my calendar now. Now that I have a date on the books I can finally start training for a goal. Along the way I am sure to put in some 10K races to keep me sharp.

Today I drove to the Nimbus Hatchery State Park and ran around lake natomas, my goal was to get a long run today of about 8-9 miles, building to long runs of 20 miles around April.

During most of my run I felt pretty good which I was surprised about, usually by the 5 miles I start to tighten up, but not this time. I ended up running 8.56 miles at a pace of 9:17 per mile, which is a bit faster that I would like to do my long runs. I am targeting ~ 10:00 but feeling pretty good all the way to the end ( even a sprint at the end) I will need to re-think my strategy and maybe target 9:30 for my long runs. On Monday I will run ~ 3 miles mostly around El Dorado Hills, which has plenty of very difficult of hills, providing the speed and hill training I need to improve my time.

Overall pretty happy with the effort, as of now my legs are a bit sore but I've felt worst!!